The new Value Added Tax (VAT) rate of 17.5 per cent has taken effect. This followed the presidential assent given the VAT Act 2013 (Act 870) on December 30, 2013, and its subsequent gazetting the following day.

Under the regime, the standard rate which was 12.5 per cent, moves up jto 15 per cent, while the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) remains at two-and-half percent.

The Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) has blamed the widening housing deficit in the country on the inability of local financial institutions to provide structured and long-term financial facilities to players in the industry.

That, it said, had constrained most housing providers and real estate developers in the country, partly forcing them to perform below their individual capacities.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) is under pressure from some business groupings to relax its directives meant to discourage the use of forex in the country and stabilise the weakening Cedi against the major trading currencies.

Although the bank had previously clarified the directives, which it issued in the wake of a consistent depreciation of the local currency, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) want the bank to further relax those directives for the benefit of their respective members.